PhD Doubts

I applied the past cycle 2026 to get into PhD in social sciences and it was quite brutal. It was my first time applying as a senior in college and getting rejections after working so hard was demoralizing.

I got a single interview and acceptance at my alma mater and I took the offer given the unstable times and funding situation we are experiencing.

I loved my alma mater; it is a R1 state school in the southeast and had an overall positive experience in my department. I just recently started and everyone is very supportive and believes in our success. All the grad students are happy here. My PI is very sweet and supportive and no one can come up with a single negative thing about them.

My main concern is about academic inbreeding. I am afraid that staying in the same school I did undergrad in will penalize me and that I should’ve rejected the offer to try again for a more prestigious university.

My goal is to research at an R1 and I am afraid it will matter where I got my PhD from if I’m aiming for Top20 schools/programs.

Thank you all for reading and helping out!